In the rail industry, maintenance of the railroad track and its components, e.g., fasteners and rail segments, is important as the condition of the track can affect the reliability of rail transportation over the track. It is also important to maintain wayside right of way equipment on the track. For example, a typical right of way includes a crossing gate equipped with lights that signal nearby automobiles when a train is approaching the crossing.
Maintenance of wayside equipment such as the alignment of crossing lights and their operation involves inspection of the equipment, which historically has been accomplished through a visual inspection by a rail worker. Rail workers either perform a visual inspection on foot, which, as will be appreciated, is laborious and inefficient, or from a moving vehicle such as a hi-rail vehicle, typically a passenger automobile outfitted with equipment for running on rails, which is tasked with periodically inspecting both the wayside equipment and rail track as mandated by applicable government regulations.
Modern locomotives are equipped with optical systems mounted in the cab to record a rail engineer's field of vision. These systems, however, are currently not utilized for wayside inspection purposes.
It may be desirable to have a system and method for inspecting wayside equipment that differ from existing systems and methods.